The Life and Times of the Woman in Red-Part VIII
by The Woman in Red
Summary: The continuing adventures of Phoenix, the Woman in Red-the rest of the story can be found at http://www.matrixfanfic.com/Phoenix/


REMEMBER THE TIME… 

In a way it made me feel less miserable about Amy's death at my hands. Not long after the scattering of her ashes, Brown would send me to join her in the afterlife. I knew she'd forgive me, but I wasn't sure if I could ever forgive myself. I wondered if that was what the Oracle meant about forgiving the unforgiveable. 

I clenched my jaw and stared out the window as the procession wound its way through Rhode Island to the marina where the Highlander lay at anchor. Every mile was filled with memories. The club that used to be our hangout, Bombers, coolest place on the planet. The downtown skyline, the Big Blue Bug, a billboard featuring Mary Ann Sorrentino, another advertising Autocrat coffee syrup. I felt very homesick for the Ocean State. 

I sighed and leaned back against the seat with my eyes closed as we drove down towards South County. I knew Dave had found some cheap marina to dock the boat. I just didn't know it was this far out in the middle of nowhere. 

Finally, Tom pulled into a slightly run-down looking marina. The Falcon sat proudly at the dock surrounded by boats that looked far more decrepit than she had at her worst. She sparkled like a diamond on a dungpile. 

Brown parked next to Tom's truck and got out of the car. He opened the door for me and waited silently while I was shrugging out of my jacket and removing my shoulder holster. No need for it now. If he arrived on the boat, he would be hosted in one of my friends, and I would not kill another one of them. I stepped out of the car without looking at him and started to walk past him. 

He grabbed my upper arm firmly and I met his impassive gaze with a hostile glare. "Yes, Agent Brown?" 

His tone was pleasant and soft, "I will be waiting here for you upon your return." 

I sighed, resigned, "Yes, I know. I'll be here. It doesn't matter any more." I shrugged, "I'm ready for you now." 

He released his grip and I walked away and boarded the Highlander. Dave handed me Amy's ashes to hold and he went up to the wheel. I sat down on the stern and clasped the urn against my chest and wept like a broken-hearted child. Tom and Becky came and sat with me, sharing their kleenex. 

The mourners were soon all aboard and Shane cast off. Dave threaded his way through the battered collection of boats whose seaworthiness was rather questionable. Chris took over hostess duties and sent Kirk around with drinks for everyone. Perry twisted up a jibber and fired it up. When it was passed to me I took several deep hits. That was all it took, Perry gets good shit. It loosened the tight knot of pain in my chest and I felt a little less like screaming. 

I passed it along and sipped my drink. In honor of Amy, we were all drinking rumcokes, her favorite. Dave, as usual had his made with Diet Coke. I'd never seen our gang this quiet. When we arrived at deep water, Dave shut down the engine and dropped anchor. He came down and joined the group. I handed him the urn and he walked over to the side and opened the cover. 

Chris handed out long-stemmed white roses to everyone, we would mingle the roses with her ashes after they were scattered upon the calm water. I had recommended to Dave that everyone share a memory of Amy before adding their rose. He held the urn over the water and upended it. All that remained of Amy in the Matrix joined the ocean. 

Dave covered the urn and sat down. My turn first. I swallowed hard and shared my memory, "I remember Amy nights. Amy was the odd one out in our household, but sometimes I'd make it her turn. We'd chase Dave and Tom out and invite the girls over for the evening. We'd play cards, listen to Jewel and Tracey Chapman, and watch chick shows on TV. She loved "The Promise" so much she'd play it over and over. I'd read Tarot cards and we'd smoke PT and drink strawberry daiquiris. She always enjoyed those nights. They were my gift to her. Let that memory lighten grief." 

I changed the rose from white to peach before I tossed it over the side. I sat back down and buried my head in my hands. Tom got up and related a story from their shared childhood before his rose joined mine. One by one, the group got up and shared their memories. 

Kirk was the last to speak and he was pretty drunk by then, so he shared the story of a party I had missed, thankfully. The whole gang had ended up at Becky's house, Kirk and Dave had crawled through the backyard puking, Perry had hurled on the front steps, and Dave had been unable to find his way to the bathroom. Instead he opened the upstairs window and pissed out of it. He found out the next morning that there was laundry hanging on the clothesline under the window. 

Another joint made the rounds and I remembered another party at the same house, "Dave, remember the time you got busted for DUI, man? You and Tom and Amy got pulled over within a couple of blocks of our house. Not sure why you were in EP, you were supposed to be in Attleboro with the rest of us. Amy and Tom showed up with the tow truck and your car and informed us that your sorry ass was in jail. I worried about you all night and then Tom and I came home to pick up some bail money and there you were, the cops had taken pity on you and brought you home." 

Dave nodded, "Yeah, that was fucked. I lost my license for six months." He drank deeply and belched loudly, I gave him the usual disapproving look and rolled my eyes. 

I remembered another party, "Remember the Hallowe'en party we had? You never did decide on what the hell your costume was. One minute you were Duncan McCloud, the next you were a Watcher. You were seeing that snotty bitch Lorraine, and that was the last time we saw her. She made the foolish mistake of trying to tell you what to do." 

Tom agreed, "Yeah, she was stupid. Remember Amy, she was really trashed and she had the camcorder and was making a documentary film of the party. " 

Hayward laughed, "That is a wild video, one of our best parties." 

Kirk laughed, "not as good as Tom and Phoenix's birthday party, the first one we had in the house. Remember, Dave got tired of answering the door and put up a sticky note that said 'just come in'." 

I remembered, "Yeah and when that crazy bitch next door called the cops, they just came in. I nearly shit when I walked in to the living room and there was a cop there. Fortunately most of us were smoking cigarettes and he couldn't smell the pot we had just smoked and no one had left their bag lying out." 

Kirk started relating stories from their youth. He and Perry were the original Beavis and Butthead. Most of the adults in town had assumed that the two were mentally retarded or hopelessly insane. I'd heard all of these stories many times, so I got up and wandered up to the bow. I lit up a joint and smoked it down to the roach. I was not about to be anything but hopelessly stoned when we returned to the dock and Brown took me into his custody. 

Dave joined me and we stood in companionable silence for a time before he spoke, "We haven't seen you in a while. What you been up to?" 

I shrugged, "Work, mostly. I haven't been getting out much." 

He turned and looked me straight in the eye, "That guy at the funeral, was he another FBI Agent like that Jones guy?" 

I nodded, and he continued, "I know you can't talk about your job because of National Security and stuff, but are you in some kind of trouble." 

"Yeah, sort of. In my job one makes certain, enemies. I'm in a lot of danger right now. I've been involved in a very sensitive research project and it's attracted the wrong sort of attention. There are people who are hunting me. They want to terminate me and my project." 

He looked shocked, "Jesus, what the hell kind of research do you do?" 

I shook my head, "I can't tell you that, and if I did, you probably wouldn't believe me. It's something you have to see for yourself. Let's just say that it's X-files stuff and leave it at that." 

His eyes were round, "Are you doing research on the aliens, like Area 51?" 

"No, Dave. As I said, I can't tell you about it. It's highly top secret. If I told you, my own people would order my termination and yours as well." 

He muttered something about government conspiracies and I smiled. "I probably won't be around much longer. These people will stop at nothing until I am dead and there's nothing that I can do to prevent them, except stay in hiding. I took a terrible risk coming here today." 

"It's a good thing they sent that FBI guy to protect you," Dave said confidently. 

I sighed and smiled ruefully, "The FBI is more concerned with protecting themselves. They don't like the nature of my project either. He's got his own agenda." I looked around, "It's probably time to head back now. The gang needs to get rowdy to start the healing process." 

He nodded and went back to the wheel. I stood leaning against the railing while we headed back to shore. I smoked one last joint, guaranteeing that I'd be totally annoying on the trip back to the city. Especially if Agent's cars have radios in them. Brown is going to kill me, but I'll make him suffer first. 

As we neared the dock, I could see Agent Brown sitting in his car, watching me. Asshole. I shot him the bird and flipped the roach over the side. I went back to the stern and said goodbye to all of my friends. When Dave tied up I walked off the boat and onto the dock. Brown opened the car door for me, "Thanks, man." 

I threw my sidearm in the backseat and threw my jacket on top of it. It was a warm day and Agents apparently did not require air conditioning in their vehicles. I rolled down the car window and kicked off my shoes, resting my feet on the dashboard. I realized it was too quiet and reached over to turn on the radio. I tuned in BCN and cranked it up. Brown didn't say a word. 

I felt my skirt pocket vibrating, and I pulled out my phone and opened the cover. I'd turned off the ringer before the funeral and hadn't bothered to turn it back on. I had an urgent voice mail message and I turned off the radio and checked the system. Jones had called and wanted me to call him back ASAP. Probably called to warn me that Brown was planning on attending the funeral. 

I returned his call, "Hey, man. 'sup?" 

He sighed, good old Jones, "I was just checking in with you. We parted on rather unpleasant terms." 

"Got that right. And this is so not a good time for any pleasant terms. I've just been at Amy's funeral, and an uninvited guest showed up. I'm totally fucked, man." 

A brown-sleeved arm appeared suddenly in my field of vision, grabbing for the phone. I grunted a negative at him, but he took the phone away from me, hung it up and put it in is pocket. 

I turned and glared at him, "You are such an asshole, Brown. That was way rude, man. Do you have any idea who you just hung up on?" 

"No, one of your colleagues in the Resistance, I assume." 

I laughed at him, "Man, you have no fucking clue. Don't you know that 'assume' makes an ass out of you and me?" 

"No, I did not know that. How is that possible?" 

"Forget it, just open the phone and hit redial, and you'll see." He gave me a long impassive look before reaching into his pocket, opening the cover and pressing the button. 

His voice almost sounded surprised, "Jones?" 

I gave him a snotty smile, "You guys really need to work on your communication issues." I held out my hand, "I'd like to finish my call, now." 

EXIT, STAGE RIGHT 

Brown handed me the phone without further comment. I smirked at him as I accepted it. "Hey, Jones. So, where were we before Agent Butthead here hung up on you?" 

"Do you really think it is a good idea to mock him, considering the current circumstances?" Jones wanted to know. 

I shrugged, "It doesn't matter anymore, man. He's got me, and I just don't care. After what I did to Amy, nothing that he does is going to bother me." 

"That was regrettable. Using one of your friends as his host was a poor decision on his part." 

"I hear you. Especially using someone as harmless as her. She's never harmed anyone in her life." I felt the tears starting to flow, and I retrieved a Kleenex from my pocket and wiped my eyes. 

He sighed, "Our kind seem to make a lot of mistakes with yours. We just do not understand you, no matter how much we research." 

"It's about the same on my side of the fence, dude. I think that's part of the problem with this whole situation. Both our races are locked in conflict, and totally dependent on one another, yet neither side understands the other." 

He was silent for a moment, "I agree. Humanity will always struggle to be free and we will always struggle to keep them inside." 

"That's my point. At least you and I tried to understand one another. One day, the struggle will end, humanity will be freed from the Matrix, and the machines will be destroyed." 

He grunted, "You really believe that? We have the upper hand in this situation." 

"Jones, I've dedicated my life to that goal, and so has every other member of the Resistance. Yes, in this particular situation, the machines are winning. Even though that victory means my downfall, I tend to look at the big picture. If anything can be learned from my life or my death, than it was not a waste." 

I smiled grimly, "And if from what I have learned and reported, a weapon to destroy the machines is created, then I've won." 

"Our destruction would make you happy?" he sounded confused. 

"Jones, there can be no freedom for the human race unless every one of you monsters is destroyed and we have our world back again. Only then can we rebuild it and live in freedom." 

He sighed, "I really thought I had reached you. You seemed to see me as less of a monster and more of a man." 

"Actually, Jones, for a time you almost did. You can thank your partner for reminding me of what you are." I turned and gave Brown a particularly dirty look. "It's time we said goodbye. I don't think I'll be running into you again." 

His voice was softer than usual, "I will miss you. I learned a lot from my association with you." 

"I learned a few things as well. Some lessons I particularly enjoyed," I smiled at the memory of our shared pleasure. 

I could hear the answering smile in his voice, "I enjoyed those lessons, too. Good-bye Phoenix." 

"I know you did, Jones. Good-bye." I closed the cover and handed the phone back to Brown. I turned the radio back up, leaned back in my seat and stared out through the windshield. I thought back over the time I had shared with Agent Jones and realized that for an Agent, he had been pretty good to me. I found a particularly pleasant memory and savored it, a smirk on my face. 

Brown turned down the radio and interrupted my trip down memory lane, "You seemed almost friendly when you were speaking with my colleague. Why is that?" 

I turned to him and raised an eyebrow, "What's it to you?" 

"You are the woman I am looking for," he reminded me. "It has everything to do with me." 

I rolled my eyes and made a tsk sound, "No, it doesn't. It has nothing whatsoever to do with you, other than the fact that we first encountered one another while you were in my hands. We got 'almost friendly' after you were returned to normal function." So, I lied, we were very friendly, but I wasn't going to share that with him. 

"Were you one of his informants?" 

"No, Agent Brown, I'm not a traitor. I'm a scientist. I think he was as curious about my kind as I was about his." I sighed. As usual, that curiosity is about to get the cat killed. 

I'd lost him, "I do not understand." 

"Never mind. If you want to know, ask him. I'm not going to tell you anything." I folded my arms and stared at him coldly. 

He turned to me, "We have our ways of making you talk." 

I snorted in derision, "That would be far more effective in a German accent. Actually, you don't. You can make the attempt, but the people on the outside are monitoring me and they will sever the connection immediately. I'm not about to tell you anything." 

"You will," he informed me in his usual pleasant tone. 

I rolled my eyes, "Whatever." I turned the music up and sat back in my seat. We were driving through town and I noticed him speed up to make a green light. Without turning amber, the light changed suddenly to red and he was forced to slam on his brakes. 

I looked at him out of the corner of my eye, and grinned to myself. As soon as the light turned back to green, he shot forward, only to skid to a halt again as the next light turned red as well. Green light, and he barreled into the intersection, nearly colliding with one of the cars running through on the red. 

The next light was amber, yet changed back to green as he approached it. It went from green to red but he still flew through it, accompanied by honking horns and curses. I noted that the muscles in his jaw were clenched and I laughed silently as we proceeded to the financial district, fighting for control of the stoplights. 

He drove into a parking ramp, slid a card in the slot and the gate rose about halfway up before stopping and descending. He stuck the card back in again and this time the gate went far enough up to clear the roof of the car. He floored it and zoomed through before it could come down again, narrowly missing a car moving towards the exit. The driver gave him the finger and I laughed. 

Brown screeched into a parking space and turned off the engine. I opened my door and got out. I slammed the door shut and waited for him. He wrapped his fingers around my upper arm and escorted me to the elevator. 

When the elevator arrived, we got in and he released my arm before pressing the button for the 41st floor. When we reached the lobby, the doors opened, and he resumed his grip on me, but no one got in. He punched the door close button and we continued our ascent, stopping again on the second floor. Again, no one got in. Ditto at the third floor. 

By the time we reached the 10th floor, I felt like I was about to explode. I kept my face averted and hoped that he attributed my shaking to fear. 

*Hey, Lisa, Anne, check this out.* 

*Phoenix, where are you?* Lisa inquired. 

*I'm with Agent Fuckface right now. He's taken me into custody, I'm afraid.* 

Anne responded a little 'loudly' and I winced, *What? Ohmygod!* 

*Don't freak out, we all knew this was coming. I'm driving him nuts right now, though.* 

I told them about the traffic lights, the gate and the elevator stopping on every floor. My head rang with their laughter, and I ended the chat with a promise to keep them up to date and say good-bye if there was time. 

15th floor and counting. His grip had grown a little tight on my arm, "Uh, Agent Brown?" 

He turned his head, "Yes." 

I looked down at his hand, "Do you mind? You are squeezing me a little tightly." 

He stared at me for a long moment, while the elevator stopped, the doors opened and closed and then resumed it's motion. "You are the woman I am looking for, and if I release you, you will attempt to escape the next time the elevator doors open." 

"You are starting to sound like a broken record, man. I said that I would cooperate with you. Otherwise I would have had Dave drop me off at another marina. I didn't have to come back there, you know." 

He regarded me with that annoyingly blank expression as he released his grip on my arm. The elevator stopped again and I couldn't hold back any more. I started with a snort, which got me snickering and finally I burst out laughing. 

Brown looked at me quizzically, "What is so funny?" 

I leaned against the wall holding my stomach, I was laughing so hard that it hurt. I shook my head at him and pressed my hand over my mouth in a futile attempt to control my mirth. I pointed at the elevator doors as they opened the next time and started to howl with laughter. 

I finally got myself almost under control at about the 30th floor. He sighed audibly, sounding just like Jones and that set me off again. He turned and glared at me, "I do not know why you find the malfunction of the elevator so amusing." 

I grinned evilly at him, "It's just like what we used to do when I was a kid. If you push all the buttons on the panel, it will stop on every floor. We'd do that to office workers first thing in the morning or at the end of the day." "This puzzles me, it resists my attempts to override whatever command it has been given. I have observed a number of malfunctions today." 

I smirked at him and moved close to him. I leaned forward and whispered in his ear, "I guess I'm still just a kid at heart." I grinned widely and patted his cheek before stepping back. I just love picking on Agents. 

We finally reached our destination. I followed Brown out of the elevator and down a corridor of what appeared to be apartment doors. He opened one and held the door open for me. I walked in and crossed the large living room to an entire wall of glass. I looked out over the financial district and the green expanse of the Common and the Public Gardens. 

Brown walked up behind me, "Nice view, isn't it?" 

I replied sarcastically, "Yes, it is. Do you stand here and marvel at its beauty, its genius, Agent Brown?" 

He shrugged, "On occasion, yes. I have been too busy looking for you of late to spend time in reflection." 

Whatever. I turned away from the view and crossed to the white leather couch and sat down. I put my feet up on the chrome and glass coffee table, folded my arms and watched him cautiously. The residential setting confused me. From the décor, Agents were definitely yuppies from hell. 

Brown walked towards me and I forced myself to stay relaxed. "Is there anything I can get for you? Some sort of refreshment perhaps?" 

A few more years of life would be nice. I replied politely, however. "A cup of tea would be nice. Earl Grey, with demerara sugar." 

He nodded and left the room. As soon as the door to what I assume was the kitchen closed behind him, I leapt up and bolted out of the living room. I had noticed a hallway off to the side with a number of doors opening off it. 

I opened one at random, my office lay on the other side. As I stepped through it, I announced, "Exit, stage right." I slammed the door shut behind me. "Sucker." 

YOU CAN JUST KEEP LOOKING 

When I got back to my office I notified my friends and my Operator that I was clear, entered my report in the system, and then called Jones. 

"Hey, man, guess what?" 

"I do not have to, I know that you got away," he sounded a bit amazed. 

"Aww, who told you?" I queried in a disappointed tone. 

"Agent Brown and I had quite a discussion about you. He was full of questions, and he still has not figured out how you escaped from our headquarters. How did you?" 

I snorted, "Dude, I am so not telling you. He made a big mistake leaving me unattended." A sudden thought occurred to me, "Jones, did you tell him about what we, um, you know, did together?" My face was crimson with embarrassment. 

"No, I did not. I told him to ask you if he wanted to know. I believe that humans prefer that such information not be discussed." 

I let out a sigh of relief, "Thanks, man." I laughed, "He asked me, and I told him to ask you. We totally gave him the runaround. Sucks to be him." 

His tone was puzzled, "He mentioned the malfunctions that he observed. He is very concerned that Neo was attempting to rescue you." 

I laughed again, "Jones, those weren't malfunctions, they were childish pranks." Agents are impossibly dense sometimes. "Dude, you called that place your headquarters. It looked like an apartment building to me. And someone needs to shoot your interior designer. That place was looked like the house in Beetlejuice-yuppie artiste from hell." 

"That is our headquarters. There are a number of standard settings. We usually use the apartment setting when dealing with humans still in the system, who have already been contacted by the Resistance. They require delicate handling. We do not want to frighten them, but we want to persuade them to help us." 

My tone was disgusted, "That décor frightened me. So, now I know his game. He is trying to get me to turn traitor. I thought he just wanted to kill me, but this is far worse." What an asshole. 

"Jones, I gotta go. I've got a mountain of data to analyze before a meeting tomorrow. My whiteboard is waiting. I'll talk at you later." 

He sounded pleased, "Perhaps we will go boating again sometime?" He sounded almost hopeful. 

"Yeah, maybe. Amy's death had the beneficial effect of hardening my heart against you." I shrugged, "I'll let you know when I'm taking her out again." 

"I will be looking forward to it." Oh, brother, does he really expect me to believe that Agents can feel anticipation? 

"Yeah, whatever, Jones. I'll probably take her out this weekend. Now that I know what Brown's really looking for from me, I'm not going to stay a prisoner in this building. If he wants me to play ball, he's got to be at least as charming as you are, at least until he realizes that he's wasting his time with me." 

"I'm gonna start living my life again. I'm going out to lunch, going shopping, going clubbing Friday." I smiled. "I expect I'll run into him a lot, but I'm just not going to let him ruin my life any more." 

Jones sounded approving, "And I am sure that you will play your pranks at every opportunity." 

"You know it, bud. I'm gonna do my best to keep that fucker off-balance as long as I can. Well, I gotta go. I'll let you know about this weekend." 

"I will wait to hear from you." He hung up. 

I decided to be totally obnoxious, I called the phone that Brown had taken away from me. I wanted to see if he would answer it. It rang several times before I heard his voice say a tentative, "Hello?" 

"LOSER!" I announced loudly. 

"Why did you leave? You told that you would cooperate with me. How did you get out of here?" 

"That's a lot of questions, Agent Brown. Lets just say I changed my mind when you decided to play the good host and left me unattended. Not too bright, are you?" I grinned to myself, I could practically hear his processor working overtime. 

"How did you get out of here," he persisted. 

I laughed at him, "That's for me to know and you to find out. I've still got a few more tricks up my sleeve. Especially now that I've figured out what your game is." My tone sharpened, "I know what you want. It's never going to happen. Not in this reality, or any other." 

He sounded confused, I love confusing Agents, "I do not understand. You are the woman I am looking for." 

"You know, I'm getting real tired of hearing that. You sound like a broken record. If you say that to me one more time I'm going to scream. You can just keep looking, Agent Brown." I hung up on him and laughed some more. 

I checked my calendar and scheduled a meeting for the following morning with the analysts. It was time to revisit the theories in light of the new information in my reports and the report of my debriefing of Tanner. I decided to go to the nearby mall for lunch afterwards, my old Tuesday routine. I contacted Lisa and Anne and they agreed eagerly to accompany me. 

Tuesday morning I marched into the conference room, and sat in my chair. The analysts ignored me as they continued a rather heated discussion regarding the skills of various martial arts actors versus real people. 

Xenium took a turn, "OK, Neo versus Chow Yun Fat." 

The prevailing opinion was that Neo would wipe up the ground with the Asian actor. There were no dissenters. 

I had a suggestion, "Lets try something harder. Jackie Chan versus Agent Smith." 

Avon rolled his eyes, "Please, Smith would kick the crap out of him." 

Swill agreed with him, "Jackie's good, but he's too comedic, he'd make Smith absolutely furious and he'd destroy him." 

Ratman theorized that if Jackie was unplugged and his mind freed he might survive a battle with Smith, but only if fought him in a normal fashion. 

I leaned back in my chair and steepled my fingers as I looked around the table. "Have you not been reading my reports people. Human unpredictability gives us the advantage over them. They use logic and logarithms to predict our behavior. When we behave in a non-logical, non-linear form, it confuses them. They are not capable of thinking outside the box. Jackie's crazy comedic behavior would make Smith furious, but it would also confuse him. He's also very good at running and hiding." 

Everyone looked thoughtful. Good. "Okay, people it's time to revisit the theories and compare them against the evidence contained in Tanner's report and the report of my recent interactions with both Jones and Brown. Both documents have some interesting intelligence to provide." 

I got up and scrawled the first pair of theories on the board, "At our last review session, we concluded that the Agents were not individuals. However, the fact that Brown and Jones are not sharing everything with one another shows that they are in some way developing individuality. " 

I ticked off the relevant information on my fingers, "Jones has attempted to warn me on several occasions-not successfully as he has to wait for me to return his call and he's not exactly a priority right now. Smith's behavior with Tanner is very different from the other two, psychotic, but different. Brown had no idea that it was Jones I was talking to and he hung up on. He also did not know that we knew one another and questioned both of us about it. Neither of us was particularly forthcoming." 

Avon was nodding, "It would seem that both theories are equally correct then. Agents are versions of the same application, but they are capable of developing individual "personalities", each with their own agenda." 

Michelle added, "And it seems that they are learning directly from us. As if human interaction is required for them to evolve this additional 'personality' function." 

Swill agreed, "The more time that Jones has spent with you the more behaviors he has learned and he developed the functionality to perceive a particular sensation as pleasure." 

I blushed, "Ok, moving right along, " I erased and then wrote the second pair of theories. I was not looking forward to the discussion about these two. I'd fight to the death to defend my theory. 

Ratman leaned forward, eyes alight, "According to my analysis of Tanner's report, I believe that the second theory is the correct one. Agent Smith obviously developed emotions for her, but was not able to quantify them before they were separated." 

Michelle agreed, "I believe that is correct. He loves her, but does not know that what he feels is love. He knows all about hate, probably learned that from interacting with our people over the years, we taught him to hate." 

Avon was shaking his head in disbelief, "I can't believe you two are scientists. Look at the entire report objectively. Tanner loves him and he was stringing her along by saying those things. As long as she had hope that he loved her or might love her, she would stay loyal to him and serve them as an Agent. He's got a long history of manipulating our people into being traitors. Look at what he did with Cypher. That poor bastard actually believed that he'd get himself back into the Matrix by doing his bidding." 

I nodded, "I've not seen anything approaching emotions from either Agent. Only behaviors imitating mine, sighing, different tones of voice, but nothing that truly indicates emotion. Unlike Tanner, I do not believe that Artificial Intelligence is capable of emotional development. Sensations, yes. But sensations for them are no different from sensations that we experience inside. Electrical impulses interpreted by our brains." 

Xenium agreed, "It is impossible for a collection of lines of code to have a human heart." 

I looked around, "It would seem that again, both theories are equally correct with the exception of emotion. Agents are capable of developing the capability to perceive sensations and becoming truly sentient. They are also capable of learning to display behaviors that are the outward expression of human emotions in order to evoke whatever response from us that they are looking for." 

I erased the board and sat down, "The other two are not in need of further review." I felt relieved that none of them had decided to debate whether or not Jones actually came or if he was faking it. I didn't really want to discuss it. 

I checked my watch, it was time for lunch, so I ended the meeting. Xenium immediately went to the Pac-Man machine and Avon sauntered over to me. I looked at him speculatively, "Avon, you really surprised me. Usually, no matter what I say, you disagree." 

He shrugged, "I realized something about you after the day on the boat. You truly are a scientist." 

I raised an eyebrow, not sure whether to take that as an insult or a compliment. 

He continued, "A true scientist will sacrifice anything including themselves to obtain data to prove or disprove a theory. None of us believed you were actually capable of having an affair with an Agent just to learn about them. We were wrong about you and I'm sorry." He smiled, "I've been a real ass, and I hope that our future relationship can be more friendly." 

I was speechless for a moment. Cocky Avon respected me, and he was apologizing. "Thanks, Avon, it will make this project a lot easier now that we are all on the same page. I've got enough to worry about dealing with Agents, to waste my energy in infighting." 

I offered my hand and he shook it, smiling, "Jones is a lucky machine." 

He got up and walked out, leaving me rather puzzled. This sudden change in his unlovable manner was not what I would have expected from him. I had a bad feeling about this. 

NEXT INSTALLMENT: I THINK I'M IN LOVE 


End file.
